Second Nature (22 page)

I glanced at the empty basket at the top,
wondering what could actually go there. “

“I don’t think it is a coincidence.” Nate
looked up at me for a moment before standing. I don’t know when he
had come back to his senses and to be honest, I was still a little
leery of him. “It seems like an awful lot of happenstance. What if
she planned this all from the beginning? And we have been playing
her game like good little pawns. Some of us better than others.” He
grimaced at the trident.

“Do you feel any different, Nate? Do you
feel anything at all?” I studied him for some visible sign of what
happened to him.

“Other than still feeling the need to get
the trident out of this apartment, no.”

“And where would you take it once it was out
of the apartment?” Xander’s wheels were turning in his head, he
definitely had an idea.

“What are you thinking?” I narrowed my eyes
as he rubbed his chin and quirked his face up in thought.

“What if we let him take the trident?” My
eyebrows shot up and my mouth flapped but no sound came out. Sariah
smacked his arm while Dylan violently shook his head no. “Give me a
sec to explain. Who had him when the spell was put on him? And who
happened to have a trident no one but Nate can wield?”

“How does she know he could touch it,
though?” Xander and Russell shared a glance and I hit the roof. “I
don’t frigging believe it. More secrets? You’ve got to be kidding
me! Spill now or I swear to God I will walk out the door, take the
first highway out of town and you’ll never see me again. I’ve had
it!” I stomped my foot for emphasis, my voice loud enough to be
heard in the next county.

Xander grimaced, but he didn’t even try to
stall or placate me. “There’s an ancient prophecy about a pair of
Gaia who will gather the Otherworld around them and unify us. It
mentions ‘the seven pillars will arm themselves with the powers of
legends.’ But we didn’t think it was real, Lia. It’s like Red
Riding Hood for Otherworlders, a story our parents tell us to keep
us in line.”

“Well, as far as Miss Riding Hood, the true
story centers on a werewolf and –” Russell paused and looked around
at the hard looks aimed at him. “Her cloak wasn’t red either, it
was green, not that anyone cares.” “An oracle said she saw me
surrounded by seven pillars of strength. There would be violence
and struggle, but if I remained steadfast, I would change the
world.” Dylan cocked his head. He had to know May was the oracle in
question.

“So you and Nate are the Gaia of legend.”
The marvel in Xander’s voice made me feel like squirming. “It makes
it all the more important for us to deal with what’s in front of
us.”

“I’ll let you side table this discussion for
now, but we
will
go back to it.”

Russell bowed his head in agreement. “Fair
enough.”

“I know no one’s asked my opinion.” We all
turned to look at Dylan, making him shuffle a little. “But I say we
let Nate take the trident. We can follow right behind him. My guess
is he’ll lead us straight to Leslie and whatever her plan is.”

“I don’t like it,” Xander said rubbing his
chin, “but I think we’re out of options, and we’re running out of
time.”

My mind sped through all the things that
could go wrong. What if Nate didn’t lead us to Leslie? What if we
couldn’t keep track of him? What if he immediately used it? What
if…

Trying to get unstuck from the pointless
loop I stood and walked to the window. Wrapping my arms around
myself, I stared at the narrow band of color on the horizon. I
counted each light as they winked on one by one across the city.
After what seemed like an eternity, I turned and with a grim
expression nodded. Hopefully I hadn’t doomed the entire planet. We
all stared at the trident in silence, and I suspected we were all
thinking the same thing.

THE SILENCE WAS deafening. All the things
that could go wrong were running through my head, and I’m sure my
siblings felt the same. But if we were going to do this, we had to
think beyond the enormous leap of faith we were about to make. “Are
we still going to try hiring Leslie?” I asked, breaking the
silence. “And how are we going to get the tool from her?”

“Good questions. I don’t think hiring her is
the way to go.” Sariah sighed.

Xander’s jaw tightened. “I think we’re going
to have to fight her.”

Shrugging one shoulder, Sariah accepted the
idea with a nod. “We can’t go in there unarmed. What’s the
plan?”

“We can beat it out of her.” Xander slammed
his fist into his palm for emphasis.

“Perhaps something a little more subtle.”
Dylan held his hands shoulder width apart, glanced at them then
stretched them as far apart as he could.

“I don’t think she’s going to give it up
easily.” Russell’s eyes were wide as if he couldn’t believe my
brother’s hurt now, worry later attitude.

“Welcome to my world, Russell.” I turned
from the window and looked at them all, gesturing around us. “Look
around this place. What’s the one thing she seems to care
about?”

They glanced around with baffled expressions
until Russell’s eyes strayed to the bookshelf. I watched the idea
spark in him. “Books. She’s a Librarian after all.”

“So what if we offer her the choice between
the tool and her books? Which do you think she’d choose?”

“I don’t know, she left them behind.” Xander
looked doubtful.

“Under heavy stasis. The book Amelia touched
was an ancient Hindu Sutra, one of the very first books in the
world. She can ignore it all she wants, but she is a Librarian.
Asking her to disregard her respect for history is like asking
Amelia to set fire to a plant. It goes against their very nature.
If we threaten to harm her books and artifacts, she’ll be putty in
our hands. It’s possible harming the books could physically hurt
her.”

I hoped he was right, because I couldn’t
think of another alternative. I didn’t like that she picked the
battlefield again, but at least now we had some sort of leverage.
This gave me another thought. “Has anyone checked the warehouse?
What if she went back there? I don’t want to turn anyone under a
spell lose on the off chance they’ll lead us where we want them to
unless it’s really the only option.”

“I actually already thought of that.” My
brother’s mouth twisted as he shrugged again. “I’ve been keeping my
eye on the place since the day we got out of there.”

I frowned. “And what are we trying to get,
Broomhilda’s tool or Peter’s location?”

“Both.” My siblings spoke in unison with
identical hard expressions on their faces.

I sighed and walked over to where Nate sat
on the couch, antsy and shifting. I put my hand on his shoulder and
instead of a blanket he was surrounded by an energy field. Touching
him felt like a constant static charge. He looked at me, but his
eyes were vacant. “If we let him do this, will it reverse whatever
is on him?”

With a sigh, Russell turned his gaze from
Nate to me. “I don’t know. I’ve never read about anything like
this. And that’s saying a lot. It’s almost like a compulsion
field.”

We all turned to him and waited for him to
continue, but he remained silent. Sensing a theme in our
conversations, I rolled my hand encouraging him to continue. He
seemed startled like he didn’t think he’d spoken the last bit
aloud.

“We’re a
sharing
a family.” I stepped
over to grab his shoulder. “So share.” My hand tightened and my
voice got firmer.

“A compulsion hasn’t been used in a very
long time because of the nasty consequences. The act of maintaining
it drains a witch and if the subject resists, whether alone or with
assistance, it drains her even more. But once the subject gives in
and cooperates, it’s like a snowball. The thing is, the blanket
feeling means he’s worn down his own resistance.”

“So he’s been fighting this since we got him
back? What could she possibly have wanted from him?”

“I think they severed the emotional bond
because you would have sensed the moment things changed. Now you
physically have to touch him to notice anything is wrong. As for
why, I wish I had an answer for you, Lia.” Russell spread his hands
helplessly.

My knees went weak and I had to sit down.
“Is there any way to free him?” I felt breathless, my heart
hammering in my chest.

“Kill the witch or get him to act contrary
to the compulsion.”

“How do you know what that would be?”

Russell shrugged, his mouth twisted. I could
tell he wanted to be of more help, but there was simply nothing he
could do. I looked at Nate sadly and thought about how things had
gone so wrong for us. Dylan’s hand gripped my shoulder and I leaned
into it, trying my hardest not to let myself tear up.

“We can worry about breaking it later. For
now, let’s figure out what they’re trying to do.” My sister gave me
a sad look, knowing the emotions I wrestled with. But she was
right. I grimaced, kissed Nate on the forehead and stood. “Remove
the stasis, Russell, but leave it where it is. Give him the chance
to fight it.”

Russell touched the trident then walked
away. Nate’s eye flicked between all of us. Slowly he stood, then
dashed into the kitchen. His hand wrapped around the handle of the
trident and electricity crackled between his palms as they closed
around it. Lightning shot between the tines and I was terrified he
was about to use it on us, but he got the mule-y stubborn look on
his face I’d come to know so well and shook his head. The static
died down, then he turned and rushed out the door. We all shared a
heavy glance. Xander ran to his car so we would have it if we
needed to make a speedy getaway. Nervously the rest of us jogged
along behind Nate. This had the potential to go very, very wrong.
Praying my worries were nothing, I picked up speed as we ran into
the night.

NATE LED US to a large mansion in the
historical district, where all the streets were brick and you had
to get permission to hang a painting on your wall. As he opened the
gate to one of the houses, Xander tackled him and Russell wrestled
the trident out of his hands, placing it back into stasis. After
being reassured it was safe to touch, Sariah shipped Dylan off with
it. If things went wrong here, we couldn’t have Leslie getting Nate
and the Trident. Once Dylan’s light had faded away, we turned back
to the house. As soon as we took the trident from him, Nate had
frozen and now sat on the ground, waiting for his next command
presumably.

With no clue what we would find when we went
into the house, we opted for the direct approach. In one of the few
moments in my life that actually went like the movies, Xander
kicked the door in. It crashed against the wall and bounced back
against his outstretched arm. Three Fumes went from staring blankly
at the wall to unconscious on the floor as Sariah knocked two of
their heads together and Xander put the third’s head through a
wall. It was good to know they were still human, you just had to
get past the super strength. I stood in the door watching, the
backpack of books from her shelf weighing me down. More Fumes came
down the stairs. Sariah met them motioning the rest of us down the
hall. As we neared the end of the hall, Russell suddenly grabbed
our shoulders and stopped us, then stepped forward with his hands
out stretched. They met with a strange purplish-white energy
field.

“Amazing,” he murmured. “I never thought of
using it this way. I could probably protect the house with this.
It’s a stasis field, but used as a single sheet. The other side is
clear.” He stood there running his hands across the otherwise
invisible barrier, leaving streaks behind his hand, but the field
never budged. “I don’t think I can disable this altogether anytime
soon. Leslie has had too much time to reinforce it. I think I can
punch a hole for the two of you to get through though. It’ll be
just the two of you. Sariah and I will be out here, but at least
the fumes won’t be able to get to you this way.”